STALWART IL2 study. Anyone in this?

[NewYorkKat]

I saw this in POZ magazine and was thinking in partaking in this: STALWART IL2. Is anyone in this? If so, how is it? Looking for anyone who can give advice on this. Yes, I have contacted them and I know what it is exactly but i am looking for anyone who is currently in this study and what they are experiencing. thanks

[Miss Philicia]

Uh, how are we supposed to know what you're talking about?  A link to more information would be both courteous and informative.

Fondly,

Philly267

[John2038]

I guess it's this:
http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/healthscience/clinicalstudies/HIVandInfectious/HIVstudies/STALWART.htm
or this
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00004978?term=Kennedy's+Disease&rank=43

If so, the purpose of the latter study (entering in phase III) is to see if it is effective to give HIV-positive patients interleukin-2 (rIL-2) in addition to anti-HIV therapy. Patients will be followed over a period of 5 years to study the long-term effects of rIL-2 on their HIV disease progression.

Doctors hope that giving patients rIL-2 plus anti-HIV therapy will help improve their immune systems and keep them healthier over a longer period of time. IL-2 is a protein found naturally in the blood that helps boost the immune system.

[NewYorkKat]

OK, no need to be nasty, here it is!

 www.stalwarthiv.com

[Miss Philicia]

I'm not sure why you would construe a kindly request for a link to be nasty.  I had absolutely no clue what you were trying to discuss here.

Fondly,

Philly267

[NewYorkKat]

Thanks John 2030 for the link.

[steppenwolf]

I saw this in POZ magazine and was thinking in partaking in this: STALWART IL2. Is anyone in this? If so, how is it? Looking for anyone who can give advice on this. Yes, I have contacted them and I know what it is exactly but i am looking for anyone who is currently in this study and what they are experiencing. thanks

Hi Kat,

I was one of the first to be enrolled in a pilot study for IL-2 in Portland, Maine, back in 1991!
There were maybe thirty of us, it lasted a year and I complied to the end because it was givng me great results and it was exciting to feel I had a new weapon,
maybe an excellent one, to fight the virus.
Remember that there was only AZT at the time, maybe something else was appearing but no Protease Inhibitors yet, and we were all scared to progress
sooner or later.
The dosage was higher for the first six months than the Stalwart plan - I don't remember exactlly - then, just like it, 5 days of injections twice a day, followed by two months before another 5 day cycle.
The side effects are bad, injections sting but the worst is the flulike syntoms, aches, nausea, loss of taste, coldlike respiratory problems.
They go away quickly after you stop taking the IL-2
My T-cell went up immediately from the 7/8 hundreds to well over 1.000, I think the most and still a record, 1,200.
My doc who was conducting the study was also one of the few at the times, who favoured an aggressive antiviral therapy even for those like me with
so many Tcells....maybe in retrospect the reason why I am still doing so well.

Regarding IL-2, a lot has been debated and not quite resolved, if they are still studying it.
The main complain from what i know, is the doubt that the Tcells created by the therapy are actually effective against hiv.

There should be plenty of archived articles about it.

Good luck,
 go nyc!

[NewYorkKat]

thanks so much for writing back on this! Finally, someone with a heart enough to answer.

I'll further look into this.